"What, those Venetians are not going to give in yet!"
William sat on the chair with a look of ugly expression, and the messenger sent by Prince Henry was standing in front of him.
"Your Majesty, according to the contact between His Highness the Prince and the Venetians, it is obvious that the Venetians have decided to go all the way to the dark. Not only did they not intend to make concessions, but even based on our intelligence, large-scale war preparations have begun in the city of Venice. The Venetians are not only repairing the city defense, but also recruiting troops on a large scale!"
The veins were vaguely pounding on William's forehead, and he was sitting on a chair, his eyes narrowed slightly together.
"Okay, it seems that the Venetians are preparing to go all the way to darkness. If that's the case, you go back and tell Prince Henry immediately and let him give the Venetian a great look! At the same time, I will also lead the army to Venice. Since the Venetians do not know the truth, then I don't mind making him the first of the entire Holy Roman Empire to be taken out and killed to warn the monkey!"
William was ruthless in his heart. Since the Venetians were so disrespectful to him, he would have to teach the Venetians a lesson that would never be forgotten. Otherwise, wouldn’t he be embarrassed in the face of the entire Holy Roman Empire?
Just after William made the decision, the Prussian royal guards who guarded William immediately began to set up their camps and move towards Venice.
Feeling the noise on all sides, Carl, who had just lie down for a while, immediately walked out of the tent.
"What's going on? Didn't you say there was no action at noon? Why is it getting noisy again now?"
After walking out of the camp, Carl immediately asked an Austrian officer guarding outside the camp. Hearing Carl's question, the Austrian officer quickly saluted Carl and said respectfully:
"His Majesty the King, the Prussians' messenger just came over and said that his Majesty had decided to change his itinerary. We will now set off our camp immediately to Venice!"
Carl was shocked when he heard the officer's reply.
Previously, due to the conflict between the Prussians and the Venetians between Britain and France, it was not a secret for a person like Carl who was in a high position. Carl had thought that the Prussians would give the Venetians a little color, otherwise, would he want to make the new emperor, who had just been crowned in Frankfurt surrender?
Afterwards, Henry led the Fourth Division to go directly towards Venice, which made Carl feel a little sympathetic to Venice. In Carl's view, the Venetians should not have the courage to do the right thing when the Prussian soldiers were in a hurry.
But who would have thought that this Venetian, who was not valued by Carl, has now attracted William to lead the army away. The hidden meaning behind this Prussian action is shocking.
If William just asked Prince Henry to lead a division of Prussian troops to Venice, then it was obvious that the Prussians were just demonstrating and hoped that Venice would surrender. After all, everyone knows how the Fourth Division could be comparable to the Prussian royal guards in terms of combat effectiveness. And judging from Carl's appearance when he left, the Fourth Division did not carry a large number of siege artillery.
If it were just Henry before, there would be room for maneuver between Prussia and Venice. However, since William has decided to lead the army to Venice himself, it is obvious that the Venetians will suffer a great disaster this time, otherwise William would never change his itinerary to Rome.
Carl suddenly felt a little admiration for the Venetians in his heart. Of course, this guy only existed for less than two minutes. After that, Carl's influence on Venice was only stupid.
William's march into Rome this time, with more than 30,000 guards from various princes, and Venice had only more than 10,000 troops. At present, the largest number of people stationed in the Venice region and the city of Venice is only 80,000 or 9,000 people. In this case, the Venetians wanted to stay in the city and defend against the Prussians. For Carl, what other words could he use besides stupidity?
Is there no large caliber siege artillery among the Prussian army? This answer is obviously no.
When William planned to enter Rome, he considered the possible risks along the way.
But at that time, William never thought that the first person to jump out to compete with him was the Venetian. At that time, William's imaginary enemy was Austria!
Because of this, William did not reduce the number of artillery due to the speed of the march. On the contrary, because William expected the risks that might exist along the way, and William needed to strengthen himself, he carried a large number of artillery in the army following William to Rome this time.
After safely passing through Austria's territory, William thought that these artillery was useless and even regretted it for a while. But now, the clown-like Venice clearly gave William a channel to show his power.
"Let's go, we will immediately set off the camp. This dispute between the Prussians and the Venetians is actually the best opportunity for us to understand the current combat effectiveness of the Prussian army. Moreover, the ones who followed the Prussian king this time were all the elites of Prussians. This is an excellent opportunity for us in Austria!"
After saying that, Carl began to instruct the guards around him to set up the camp.
Fortunately, because it was only a temporary rest at noon, there were no tents in the army except for the princes, so the speed of decapitation of the camp was very fast. In just half an hour, the princes who received the notification from the Prussians had completed the decapitation of the camp and began to advance towards Venice together according to the route set by the Prussians.
The fast horse quickly handed William's intention to Henry. Although it was already four o'clock in the afternoon when Henry received William's order, Henry immediately called Reohard, the commander of the Fourth Division.
"Reohard, you are one of the best division commanders in the kingdom. This can be seen from this time when His Majesty the King brought the Fourth Division to Rome except the royal guards, so I will not say much to you!
What I want to say is that this is your opportunity, not only your chance to show your face to His Majesty the King, but your Fourth Division also represents the Kingdom of Prussia. You fought well in this battle. Then I can guarantee that your future is bright. Of course, if you disappoint His Majesty the King, then no one can save you. Do you understand!"
Henry said something, Leohad was full of excitement, only seeing Leohad bow decisively to Henry and said:
"Prince, please rest assured. The Fourth Division will never let down His Majesty the King's trust and the expectations of the Prussian Kingdom in the next season!"
Seeing Reohard's actions, Henry nodded and said:
"Very good, this is the role model for our Prussian soldiers! This time, His Majesty the King has an order that before the royal guards arrive, we must give the Venetian a powerful look, and this task will be handed over to you. I hope you do not disappoint His Majesty and me!"
"promise!"
Reohard responded loudly and walked out of the military tent.
After Reohard left the tent, he immediately ordered the artillery regiment of the Fourth Division to transport all the artillery to the front line, and the Prussian cavalry of the two regiments spread to the north and south of Venice in a fan shape.
The city in Venice has an area of less than 7.8 square kilometers, but it is composed of 118 small islands and 177 canals are densely covered with spider webs. It is a veritable water city.
There is also a moat outside the walls of Venice. This moat has saved Venice many times in history, but I don’t know if this moat can still play a role as a savior now.
For Venice, although Henry and the Fourth Division had never been here, Henry spent two days to get a rough understanding of Venice from the moment William sent Henry.
The moat outside Venice is about five meters wide, and the only way to pass through the moat is the three stone bridges and five suspension bridges of the moat.
Of course, suspension bridges are not desirable at the moment. After all, from the moment the Prussians were in Venice, the Venetians hurriedly pulled up the suspension bridge, so that the only passage for the Prussians to go to Venice was only three stone bridges.
Of course, the Venetians could not destroy these stone bridges for a while, and of course, perhaps the Venetians were not prepared to destroy these stone bridges. If these stone bridges were destroyed, Venice could withstand the temporary attacks of the Prussians, but it would be very troublesome if Venice wanted to communicate with the outside world in the future.
Soon, before seven o'clock that night, the Prussian cavalrymen of the two cavalry regiments who had been sent out returned. Of course, when they returned, they were far more than the number of the two cavalry regiments they had sent out.
These cavalrymen used three hours to drive all the residents of several towns around Venice to a place not far outside Venice.
Originally, neither Henry nor Reohard were going to use these civilians to do things, but I think that since these Venetians dared to stand opposite to Prussia, they would inevitably make the Venetians understand that Prussia is not easy to mess with.
Moreover, the three stone bridges in Venice are not so easy to seize. Although after several hours of mobilization, the number of troops in Venice is not as large as that of the Fourth Division, but with these three stone bridges alone, it is useless to have the Prussian army.
Only by snatching the stone bridge in your hands, even if it is just to capture one, it will be much easier for the Prussians to win.
After escorting thousands of civilians, the cavalry handed over the custody task of these civilians to the infantry, and then turned around and left again. They did not forget the task given to them by Reohard, which was to rush to more people, the more the better!
In Leohad's vision, if the Republic of Venetians still refuses to bow his head under the lives of these Venetians, then these Venetian civilians will be the key to Prussia's victory. After all, it is better to use the lives of these Venetian civilians to fill this moat than use the lives of Prussian soldiers.
Perhaps in the future, people will call Reohard a beast, and of course, it may be more likely that animals are inferior to animals, but this is usually the case in war. If anyone is the most injured in war, then there is no doubt that it is a civilian.
As for what those who win the hearts of the people will win the world, and what kind of benevolent people will be invincible, it can actually be regarded as nonsense! Your fist is not strong enough, and it is useless to have the hearts of the people. If your army is not strong enough, can benevolence and righteousness protect you from death?
Not to mention anything else, it is Zhu Yunwen, the Emperor Hui of Ming Dynasty. Did he not have the hearts of the people? Was he not kind and righteous? But in front of Zhu Di's military talents and the elite Yan army that had been tempered into steel, he was still pulled down from the throne by his uncle. Do you know life and death!
During the Yuan Dynasty's rule of the Central Plains, the first night power, the fourth-class Han citizens, shared kitchen knives, etc., did the Yuan Dynasty win the hearts of the people in the Central Plains, or did the benevolence and righteousness of the Yuan Dynasty? As a result, the Yuan Dynasty did not dominate the Central Plains for 97 years, what did he rely on? It was not his mother's relying on the army and butcher's knife!
There are too many such examples, so I won't tell you one by one.
Therefore, history is written by the victors. Don’t talk about the hearts of the people or the benevolence and righteousness. Those are used by the rulers to make themselves gild their faces!
Just when they saw countless ordinary Venetians in Venetian service suddenly appeared on the other side of the moat, the Venetian soldiers guarding the city were all excited. You should know that among these soldiers, the few who were in Venice, most of them came from other towns in the Venetian region. In this case, they naturally worried that the civilians outside the city had their own families.
This situation was quickly sent to the Grand Parliament of the Republic of Venice.
"What, you said that the Prussian army outside the city actually escorted many Venetian civilians to come!"
Domingo, who learned the news, shouted loudly at the officer who came to report the news.
"Yes. Sir, the number of civilians outside the city is not less than a few thousand. The officers guarding the city don't know what to do, so they are sent to ask for instructions!"
After hearing these words, Domingo stood up and said anxiously:
"Have the morale of the army fluctuated? Did the Prussians coerce those civilians across the stone bridge?"
"This is not the case, but the Prussians just sent a letter through a civilian, who asked us to take out 100,000 pounds of food immediately. Otherwise, the Venetian civilians outside the city would become the striker of tomorrow's attack!"
Hearing these words, all the members of the Parliament of the Republic of Venetian Republic, including Domingo, became silent, and even softened sobs in the parliamentary hall.
"Sir, all the Prussians want is food. What's wrong with us even if we give it to them! If we don't give it, then we will have to pay the lives of countless Venetians!"
After a quiet time, a Venetian parliament member suddenly shouted loudly to Domingo.
Domingo was also in a dilemma at this moment. On the one hand, he did not want to give the food to the Prussians. This time the Prussians did not mention anything to buy it. Instead, they directly asked Venice to provide it for free! On the other hand, Domingo did not want to betray the agreement reached with Florence and several other city-states.
And at this moment, the Florence messenger Pointz, who was standing beside Domingo, said:
"Sir, this is just a conspiracy of the Prussians. What they want is the surrender of Venice. But from the perspective of Venice, I think the more at this time, the less we cannot surrender to the Prussians. If we surrender now, it is difficult to guarantee that the Prussians will not make more and more demanding demands. Besides, if we agree to the Prussians' conditions, then where will we Florence and other people who are determined to support Venice?"
After Ponz finished speaking, he immediately aroused the rebuttal of many Venetian parliament members. However, while refuting Ponz, they also looked at Domingo. After all, as the ruler of the Sevo family, who currently controls most of the rights in Venice, Domingo is the person who can make decisions on behalf of Venice!
"Tell me my order, the whole city is martial law, and the Prussians should not want to get a grain of food from Venice!"
After a while, Domingo gritted his teeth tightly and spit out a sentence from the gap.
When many of them heard about Domingo's decision, their faces were gloomy. Even though many of them were yelling at Domingo or roaring at Domingo, hoping that Domingo could change his decision, Domingo did not let go.
However, this situation also made Points breathe a sigh of relief. For Points, what he was most worried about was Domingo surrender under the pressure of the Prussians. If that was the case, where would Florence be placed!
That night, Prussian cavalry continued to drive civilians from the Venetian area to the open space outside the city of Venice. Many of these Venetians wanted to resist, but their resistance was simply weak to the fully armed Prussian army.
However, the Prussians did not abuse these Venetians, at least the food they should give was given. After all, what Prussia wants is Venice to throw rats and avoid weapons, rather than really slaughtering all of these Venetians.
Early the next morning, these Venetian civilians were woken up. Even though they wanted to pretend to be dead, they had to see if the Prussian soldiers with weapons in their hands agreed.
After waking up these Venetians, the Prussian soldiers lined up in neat rows, holding steel guns in their hands, forcing the Venetians to walk towards the three stone bridges.
Of course, there are also some tough people among these Venetians, but when faced with these Venetians, the Prussian soldiers would not be ruthless. The Prussian soldiers walked forward with the drum beats. Even if the bayonet was already pressed against the waists of the Venetians who refused to leave, the Prussian soldiers would not take a step back.
In this way, those Venetians who claimed to be tough were naturally stabbed to death by the Prussian soldiers without hesitation, while the other Venetians could only walk towards the stone bridge under the threat of death.
PS: It is really not easy to be able to persevere until now. Sometimes I really don’t want to write anymore because the following text is very poor, and if you say it, you have some angered youth.
But I still have to thank my supporters for my support!
Thank you for your support along the way. Although there are not much, I am very grateful!